The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-11-09
Content is a Crown.

A contributor to Good Cheer tells a
true story of lady whose life was
changed by the finding of ring. Up
to the time of finding it she had been
moody and unhappy, brooding over her
poverty and fast becoming stern and
cold.
Filled with gloomy thoughts, she
wandered one afternoon down to the
end of the long garden, where. leaning
upon the fence which divided il from
the swampy field beyond, she moodily
watched the setting sun till it sank
away from sight. Then, listessly turn
ing to go home, she glanced at the care
fully-tended beds, whose care formed
the recreation of her husbands busy
life, and half mechanically stepped
aside to uproot an intrusive weed
which, growing in a corner, had escaped
notice.
The roots had taken deep hold, and a
-vstrong pull was required to loosen them.
AT last the weed came up in her hands
and she threw it over the fence, which
was built upon an embankment, into a
ditch below. As she threw it it seemed
to her that glitter as of gold caught
her eye. She looked down into the
ditch, but there was nothing bright
about the weed, not even a yellow
blossom.
Again she turned to 90 in, but she
could not rid herself of the impression
that she had seen CLEAN of brightness
as she threw away the weed And so,
after she had prepared the tea-table for
her husband, she went out again, while
the long summer twilight fingered, and
climbing over the garden fence, picked
the object of her thought from the
ditch for closer inspection. There
she found heavy, plain gold ring Sc
curely fastened to the long fibrous
roots, which had grown through it and
twisted themselves together. She freed
1t from the roots and read, in old
fashioned but plainly cut letters upon
the inside of the ring, the device,
Content is a Crown"
The ring, with its most appropriate
motto, coming thus strangely and at a
time when its advice was so needed,
seemed to the finder like a message of
reproof from heaven, and startled her
into perception of the almost morbid
state OF discomfort into which she was
falling She took the lesson to her
heart, and ever wearing the ring upon
her finger, as reminder of the fault
she wished to cure, she became one of
the sweetest, sunniest women in the
world.
She took off the ring when she told
me the story, and let me read for my
self the quaint lettering within it.
But how" said l, "did the ring get
into the ground for the roots to grow
through? 1t was like miracle
So it seemed to me for years." said
my friend, " for l spoke to no one of
my message, nor told where my ring
came from, till l could feel that my
fault was enough thing of the past to
be spoken of. Then l told the incident
to my husband, and he explained the
strangeness of it in this way: The
house and garden were upon ground
that had been battlefield in the
revolutionary war, and this ring had
probably been upon the finger of some
English officer slain upon the field. In
the many years that had passed the
hand that wore the ring had crumbed
into dust, leaving it free for the roots to
clasp and bring its message where it
was so needed"
l could not easily believe that my
friend had ever required it, but so she
said. And, looking at the ring again
wished | could hear the whole story,
and know why and for whose sake the
motto had been engraved but there
are none living who can tell that his
tory now.